


My Name Over Your Heart

by hoars



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, M/M, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-13
Updated: 2012-11-13
Packaged: 2017-11-18 14:12:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/561922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoars/pseuds/hoars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s a million theories and stories that you could subscribe to that explained the bond that would begin to form at the slightest skin to skin contact, whether you were aware of your soulmate’s identity or not. Old Man Under the Moon, bad karma separating the souls, God deciding the mate of a child before conception, the chemical balances of PSI levels, etc.</p><p>All anyone knew for certainty was it happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Name Over Your Heart

Everyone had a soulmate, a bond that was initiated by the simplest of skin to skin contact.

You see, what happened was Nothing learned to hate humans.

His heart grew twisted by loneliness and jealousy.

The Creator made humans: four arms, four legs and a single head with two faces.  Humans were never alone for the day the Creator made them, he gave them a companion starting the moment they came into the world.

Nothing was nothing.

He had no one.

It was unfair, how humans had a constant companion to feel and love with them.

On the day the Sun and Moon were blind to the Earth, it being neither day or night and no guardians to watch over the Creator’s most beloved of creations, Nothing went into a rage.

He tore humans apart, separating them into two arms, two legs and one head with one face. He flung them across the lands and oceans, hoping to separate them forever. (He split some even further apart, in his rage. He created the blood drinkers, the skinwalkers, the ghost whisperers, the ones born with black hearts. Anything to keep humans separated from each other.)

When the Sun and Moon could see the earth again, they mourned their beloved children. Their children cried for one another, desperately seeking each other and they watched the darkness that had blackened Nothing’s heart touch human hearts.

Feeling for their plight, the Sun put a spark in each split in half human, _Look upon your heart for your mate’s name will ever rest there_. The Moon not to be outdone by her brother weaved her magic, _When you find each other, let your split souls mend into one._

The Creator, furious at Nothing’s wrong doings, banished nothing deep into the earth.

That’s the oldest story at least.

There’s a million theories and stories that you could subscribe to that explained the bond that would begin to form at the slightest skin to skin contact, whether you were aware of your soulmate’s identity or not. Old Man Under the Moon, bad karma separating the souls, God deciding the mate of a child before conception, the chemical balances of PSI levels, etc.

All anyone knew for certainty was it _happened_.

i.

When Derek was eight, the name Grimuwcyn appeared on his chest above his heart in bright orange on April 8th.

“Well, that’s, um, different.” His mother had said.

“Very unique.” His father added helpfully.

Derek tried pronouncing it but his tongue feels too heavy in his mouth and Laura started laughing at his inability to say his soulmate’s name.

“You can’t say it either.” Derek sulked.

“I don’t have to know how.” The thirteen year old responded smugly. “Not my mate.”

For the first time, Derek experienced envy that his sister’s soulmate had a simply name like _Kate_.

ii.

Today, Uncle Peter had been in charge of his training and Uncle Peter’s lessons were always the hardest. Sweat was dripping down the side of thirteen year old Derek’s face, his arm twinging as his broken arm and wounds began to heal. Uncle Peter’s lessons may be the hardest, but he was also Derek’s favorite because he always waited with Derek in the woods for his injuries to heal.

“Something’s bothering you.” Peter said. “What is it?”

Derek stared at the sky. The tree branches and clouds hiding most of the blue in bizarre patterns like Laura’s art work.

“A girl in my class. Her soulmate’s name is Derek.” He admitted.

“Ah. The perils of having a common name.” Peter said dryly.

“Yeah.” Derek agreed and the silence stretched a little longer, his heart weighing heavy. Ever since the girl, Evie had asked Derek if her name was above his heart he’s felt morose. “What if I can’t find my soulmate?” He finally asked.

Grimuwcyn didn’t even sound _English_. What if his soulmate lived in Siberia or something? Derek didn’t even know if it was boy’s or a girl’s name. His mother had looked it up the night Derek had shown her the orange name and the internet yielded no results. Five years later and more contacts and books than Derek had known existed, his parents’ concluded it must be one of those names that you only hear every fifty years because some relative felt compelled to name their kid after you. Derek really wished his soulmate’s parents had given his mate a name like Robbie or Meredith.

Anything to make his search feel less impossible.

“Well,” Peter said slowly, clearly gathering his thoughts. “You know more about your soulmate than most do at thirteen. You know your mate is eight years younger than you are and their birthday. That gives you an age group to search.”

“That’d make my mate five.” Derek said surprised. “Huh.”

“Exactly.” Peter smiled. “When you turn twenty-six, your mate should be delivered to your door. I doubt there will be many eighteen year olds named Grim-uh, you know.”

Even after five years, how to pronounce his mate’s name eluded everyone.

“Don’t worry about it, Derek. You’ll have an easy way of it. Just be patient.” Peter suddenly laughed. “With any luck we’ll find our mates at the same time.”

Derek smiled at his uncle. The August before Derek learned his mate’s name Peter had learned his mate’s name: Lydia.

“I think I feel better about an eight year difference now.” Derek said dryly.

“Exactly.” Peter nodded. “I have a nineteen year difference and that is going to be an awkward meet the parents no matter what I do.”

iii.

When Derek is fifteen and Laura is twenty, she comes home with a woman named Kate. She’s twenty-four and smells like sugar and honey. She’s beautiful and the pack is quick to warm up to her as everyone gets caught up in the excitement of planning their bonding ceremony.

Laura and Kate agreed on a summer ceremony and everyone quickly becomes stressed because that ceremony won’t be months away but _weeks_. Everyone is contributing, except for Derek who is pretty sure everyone went insane. Before Laura brought Kate home, Derek didn’t even know bonding ceremony invitations came in Fiona or Cassandra or there was a difference between cream and parchment and y’know, not just kinda yellow.

So he can’t really be blamed.

He listens at Laura’s and Kate’s door and hears only Laura’s heartbeat and immediately pounces in the room. It’s maybe nine and he doesn’t know where Kate is. Maybe in the basement or checking out the town’s nightlife but he finally has Laura to himself.

“Let’s go running.” He begs her and he’s not afraid of admitting. He hasn’t really seen her since he was thirteen and she went to college. They used to be close and not just because he’ll be her pack’s Beta when they old enough to start their own pack.

Her eyes are soft and she cards his hair. “Sure.”

They come back to a house engulfed in flames, the screams of the pack alerting them too late to save anyone but Peter who probably would have preferred not to have lived.

iv.

Laura thanks God Kate hadn’t been in the house, she can still feel her alive through their bond, but when Kate doesn’t come looking for Laura, Derek is forced to come to the conclusion Laura must’ve reached if her heart wrenching sobs are anything to go by.

“My soulmate,” She cried over and over. “Our pack.”

Laura whisks them to New York where she has friends that offer their homes to them. Derek doesn’t see Laura for two weeks as she hunts down any mention of Kate Moreau. He grieves in his own way, tries to forget the smell of his pack burning and their strangled gasps as the smoke choked them in school and track. Maybe if he concentrates enough, runs far enough, he’ll forget for a little while.

He finds her at the small kitchen table one morning, her head in her hands as she tells him. “My mate was a fucking Argent. A god damn _hunter_.” Her laugh is terrible.

v.

If Laura had been human, she could have reported the crime to the authorities or hunted Kate down and killed her. She has a good chance of surviving a broken bond since their bond is a thread that connects them.

But she’s not human. She’s a werewolf and if Kate dies so does Laura. Laura can’t kill the mate that betrayed her.

It makes him dread the day he meets his soulmate. If this is what can happen, he doesn’t want any part of it.

When he’s twenty-four, two years away from being able to find his mate through the database and three years after he’s graduated college, Laura tells him she’s going back to Beacon Hills for closure. She’s going to find out who helped Kate and how she did it. She says she _needs_ it.

He watches her drive away in her Camaro and stands, staring after her for a long time.

vi.

He feels when she dies.

Like his heart has been squeezed every drop of blood and the air in his lungs is fire. He spends two days unconscious on the floor before he can book a one way flight to California.

The text sent from her phone: _Come out, come out where ever you_ , calling him to his hometown to rip out the throats of those who dared take his sister.

vii.

He hunts the Argents down first.

They live in the expensive side of town in a large white house that Laura and Kate used to fantasize about buying and filling with Laura’s pack and their adopted children and pets. It pisses Derek off but ultimately he’s glad.

The house had been as far away from his mother’s territory as possible and still be in the same county.

He doesn’t see Kate, but sees a family of three instead that have an armory in their garage.

From Laura’s notes on Kate Argent, Derek knows the man is the woman’s older brother. Derek can’t think of a plan short of killing their daughter to make Argent call in his sister and spends a week torturing himself in the shell of the Hale house.

Derek doesn’t want to kill their daughter and he can’t stop feeling guilty relieved when he finds a bitten wolf and his friend hanging around his property, a vendetta spiral carved into his palm that even from fifteen feet away, Derek can see is healing werewolf fast.

There’s an alpha in the area. That alone will cause the hunters to flock to this place, especially if he’s recruiting.

He goes hunting for the bitten werewolf two days later, unable to leave him alone in the world without a clue.

It’s what Laura would have wanted.

viii.

He’s been in Beacon Hills for a few months now.

Derek had tried to leave the night after he killed Peter, but as he neared town limits, he turned the car around.

He couldn’t abandon a bitten werewolf whose soulmate was a hunter. He couldn’t. He owed it to Laura to try keeping the kid and his family safe.

Scott, of course, wants nothing to do with him so he can stay in the Argents’ good graces.

Being an alpha fucks with his brain. He wants a pack like he’s never wanted a pack before. He nearly gives Jackson the bite, desperate to have someone besides himself in his pack, his teeth almost clamped down on his skin when he feels a surge of _something_.

He starts so bad; he scares Jackson into running away.

It feels like someone wrapped a dryer warm blanket around Derek’s heart, cradling him in warmth and affection and a sense that he isn’t alone. That he will never be alone.

He doesn’t think about Grimuwcyn, but if he did, Derek knows now his soulmate is in Beacon Hills. That he’s touched his soulmate at some point.

ix.

Derek considers the kid before offering him the bite.

The bond between Derek and Grimuwcyn flares whenever the alpha instincts try drowning him and gives Derek enough respite to think.

“I really am pathetic.” The kid tells Derek. Derek hears worthless. “My father’s right. I deserve it. Don’t you get it? I’ve known who my soulmate is for the past three years and I haven’t told him. He doesn’t even know I exist because I’m so terrified I’ll drag him down too.”

The kid is damaged and Derek can’t fight the urge that rises in him to steal the boy away to save him from himself.

Isaac is submissive in a way that pleases his wolf, but gives Derek enough attitude to amuse him. The boy rides the line between the two with grace. A lot like Stiles, actually.

He spends a month teaching Isaac about what it means to be a werewolf. How to control the change, how to control his senses and his sudden strength. He’s sitting in the same clearing he’d train with Peter, waiting for Isaac’s broken bones to mend when he finally broaches the touchy subject of Isaac’s soulmate.

“It’s Danny.” Isaac says quietly. “Daniel Mahealani. I saw my name over his heart the first day after lacrosse try outs.”

Isaac doesn’t say ‘I always make sure to stay away from him in case we touch.’ Derek can hear that loud and clear.

“Talk to him. I don’t want your mate turned against you.” Isaac smells afraid but he nods and because Derek is fair, or trying to be, he shows him his soulmate’s name on his chest. “I still can’t figure out how to pronounce it.” He admits.

Isaac smiles at him shyly.

x.

Somewhere, distantly, he’d known Stiles was a nickname.

No one names their kid Stiles Stilinski.

He’d been changing his shirt at Stiles’ request. “That spot, that spot right there is blood and my dad does not need to see me hanging around former murder suspects who are covered in blood.” And had been bitching to Stiles that none of his shirts fit (you think Stiles would know better after the first time, then again, it could be argued you’d think Derek would stop wearing bloody clothes around the teenager), so his bloody one was going to have to make do when Stiles’ heart skipped a beat.

And then proceeded to speed up to a caffeinated crack addict’s heart rate.

“Oh. Oh god. That’s, oh.” Stiles’ eyes are focused on his chest, on his soulmate’s name and Derek feels like he’s been punched in the gut. “How many _G_ rim-eew-oo-cin’s do you think there are?”

His mate’s name is pretty. A mouthful of too many vowels in the middle for Derek’s tongue to ever feel right mouthing but it rolled off quickly when Stiles said it, making it musical and airy.

“So that’s how you say it.” Derek says.

“Um, yeah. It’s Welsh. Them Welsh are crazy.” Stiles says weakly, his hand over his heart where Derek’s name should be.

Derek wants to see it. He wants to see his name on Stiles in orange. His _wolf_ wants to see it.

“Oh! You probably want to see your name, right? I mean Derek is common enough and I know your name is Derek, I just you know, never connected the friggin’ dots because there’s a lot of Dereks but only one Derek Hale, alpha werewolf who sometimes wants to kill me.”

“Stiles.”

“Right! Um,” And Stiles begins tugging off his shirts. Stiles wrestles with them for a long moment before Derek can see his name in bright orange right over Stiles’ heart.

It’s a kick in the  teeth.

vii.

Derek isn’t sure what to do with his soulmate now that he’s found him, has had him for months. Before Kate burned his family to death and ripped Laura’s spirit from her, Derek would have introduced him to his parents, his sisters and extended family. He never anticipated finding Grimuwcyn before he turned eighteen. He imagined maybe following his soulmate to college, hopefully in a remote rural area so he would still be able to run on the full moons.

Once, Derek had liked art. Had liked drawing and had thought about apprenticing at a tattoo shop when he was sixteen, pre-fire. He maybe thought about doing that. He’d been sixteen. He also thought about doing wildlife photograph.

So Derek isn’t really sure what to do with Stiles now that he has him.

Because Derek’s life had been turned upside down by Kate, he didn’t pursue his dreams, he hadn’t wanted to ever find his soulmate. He’s a little lost right now.

viii.

In the end, he doesn’t do anything. Pretends he never discovered Stiles’ worth.

 _I never intended to find you, have you, until you were eighteen._ Derek admits in a text message after days of silence and trying to figure out what to do. _You should have those two years._

Stiles doesn’t text back, but considering the message came from Isaac’s phone, maybe he hadn’t wanted to broadcast his business. Derek doesn’t care either way. Tells himself so.

They go back to their previous, slightly antagonistic, bitchy relationship.

The comforting presence of Stiles’ soul is gone like the boy realized what he was doing and put an end to it.

Stiles still comes to him to ask the questions Scott refuses to. Derek keeps the hysterical part of him firmly under wraps but can’t help but think, he’s taken on the alpha-mate responsibilities. He comes to Derek when he suspects something bizarre happening to his classmate, the one Peter nearly killed, Lydia (did Peter know? Does he know who he hurt?). And they save the day and it’s like nothing has changed between them.

He tells himself the ache in his heart is because he’s relieved.

ix.

Having Peter alive again is beneficial.

“A widdershin witch, most likely.” Peter says. “Deosil witches don’t believe in sacrifices. But this widdershin is most likely in training.”

“How can you tell?” Derek asks.

“What? Widdershin? Deosil? Are you making up words? Can’t you just say wicked witch and good witch like everybody else?” Stiles whines.

The crime scene photos Stiles brought to them are spread out on the card table in all their gory glory. The pictures are of three separate scenes, but they all have the same type of dead bird on site and one living, locked in a cage. The birds look pigeons a little. He hadn’t known there was magic that involved _pigeons_.

“A seasoned widdershin knows it’s impossible to rip away the link that forms between soulmates.” Peter says, ignoring Stiles with a gleam in his eye that says he knows exactly how much he’s pissing the teenager off. “But this girl is trying her damnedest.”

“Why would anyone want to do that?” Isaac asks completely horrified and Derek very carefully doesn’t look at Stiles.

“I believe my niece would have killed thousands of turtle doves if it meant destroying the bond between her and soulmate.” Peter says when Derek doesn’t. His eyes are curious, and Derek tightens his jaw. “Her mate did kill our pack.”

“I thought Kate did—oh.” Stiles is quiet now too and Derek can feel the burn of his eyes.

Stiles’ soul, the comfort it always brought when Derek needed it most but had been absent of late, came back in a slow curl. Like a cat slinking back to its master after shamefully drawing blood. He hates how quickly his own soul twines around Stiles’ like that could prevent Stiles from pulling away again.

“How do you know she’s trying to break the bond?” Derek asks.

Peter is smart. He has to know who Stiles is to Derek by now. But the man says nothing.

“The birds are turtle doves.” Peter explains. “It’s the ritual Morgana is said to have used to break the bond between King Arthur and Guinevere. The bond between the turtle doves represented Arthur’s and Guinevere’s and when she killed one bird, Arthur’s and Guinevere’s souls lost each other. Spiritually lost to each other for the rest of their lives.”

“Which led to Arthur’s downfall and the end of Camelot.” Stiles finishes. Derek watches him bite his lip and feels – it’s nothing. He feels nothing at the sight. Except for dread maybe. Stiles is thinking and he’s thinking hard about something and he has his suspicions about the conclusion he wants to draw. “What if the wicked witch isn’t trying to break _her_ bond? But other people’s bonds? What if she _can_? Legends are always based on some truth.”

x.

The widdershin had been a twenty-something woman who believed she was freeing humanity from their earthly ties.

“We can only ascend if we are free!” She had laughed and cried and screamed over and over like a mantra.

Derek can still hear her voice in his mind. How it echoes. How she said she was helping him, that Nothing guided her hand and was ridding Derek of his unwanted bond. When she held her knife to the turtle dove’s breast, he had felt the cold tip of the blade on his own heart and he’d clung as hard as he could to Stiles’ soul, like if he held on tightly enough, they wouldn’t be forcibly separated.

They had found her victims. Inconsolable people with scar tissue where names should be.

He slides the bedroom window open and ducks in.

Derek had almost lost the name over his heart and it wasn’t until now he remembered why that was completely unacceptable.

Stiles was still awake, staring at Derek’s name like it might fade.

“I thought you didn’t want me. That because you met me as Stiles instead of Grimuwcyn you didn’t like me.” Stiles says. “I—one good thing about the wicked witch of California is I know now you’re just really fucked up.” Stiles looks up and Derek is pinned by the heat in that gaze, in the tightening of Stiles’ soul, squeezing his heart until it’s surely bruised. “You want me. You want our bond. You’re just afraid. And I’m afraid to. I’d be stupid not to be. When my mom died, my dad, he wasn’t my dad anymore. But I know you want this and I want it too.” His voice breaks. “So please, just, can we – ”

He’s heard enough and steps forward and grabs tightly onto Grimuwcyn , to _Stiles_.

“Okay.” He says. “Let’s do that.”

It’s not the grand romantic unveiling Laura’s had been, or the scandalous one Peter’s ended up being, or the nearly heartbreaking one Scott’s had been.

But Derek gets to fall asleep every night afterwards with the orange of Derek and Grimuwcyn behind his eye lids, Stiles pressed into his side, real and his and no more tragedy touching the bond that melds their souls together as they should be.

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, I have an addiction to soulmate, soul bonding stories but all the super awesome ones are WIP. So... I wrote one. That's short and sorta eh on my end since there's no romance, kissing, or /anything/, but I had no where else to go with it. It dead ended itself. Because it hates me. Unlikely to continue, but maybe one day. I dunno.
> 
> Also, for the moments Derek was shirtless in season one, assume he wore a patch over his chest or something and since he's been in Beacon Hills creeping on Stiles for awhile, he didn't feel the need to wear it recently. Damn you plot holes. Damn you.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Your Mark on my Skin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/624143) by [afullrevolution](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afullrevolution/pseuds/afullrevolution)




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